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It's impossible to know how your day will unfold when you work at an RSPB reserve.

For anyone out there that still thinks it's 'just birds', a little story to illustrate...

We keep highland cattle on Old Moor to graze the grass and prevent vegetation getting too high (which wouldn't be too great for the wetland birds we get here). We call them our four-legged lawnmowers.

Although they are doing a job, they also provide some entertainment for children when they wipe their noses across the glass front of our family hide.

Unfortunatley two nights ago, someone cut the chain locking the gate to our Gypsy Marsh reserve and opened the gate. The three cattle got out, and when two were found, they were at least a mile away having wondered up the Trans Pennine Trail!

The final cow was found at 7.30 in the evening when police reported it by the road near old moor. It took three officers, several staff and a grazier to pursaude what was a rather grumpy and stressed cow back onto the reserve.

We're delighted to have them home, so that they can keep up their good work and chomp for birds and wildlife!

We are so used to hearing positive feedback that news of a digruntled family worried me terribly.

I was making my way to one of our hides when I heard quite a commotion in the hedgerow to my right. The cause of the unrest turned out to be a family of wrens who were clearly unhappy about something. On closer inspection the 'something' turned out to be our friend the weasel! Obviously the wrens weren't so pleased about the visitor but the 'handsome intruder' soon got the message and went on his way.

As the Autumn draws in it's likely that you'll see more and more birdlife in your gardens, with any luck some wrens will be among them. Perhaps start having a think about what you can feed them as food becomes more and more scarce in the winter. With exactly on month till Feed the Birds Day with the RSPB it's time to start stocking up on seeds to attract visitors old and new...

I hope that a few of you managed to catch 'The National Lottery Big 7' on Saturday 5 September to watch RSPB Old Moor win a cash prize and a hefty award. If you did, you will have seen muggins here one or two times, but sadly without the promised wellie-boots! (We weren't allowed - far too dangerous!)

I hope that if you did vote for us you were not too disappointed. At least you got to see some real conservation bodies in all their finery! 

We're thrilled to bits and can already feel the swell of support for our work manifested in visitor numbers on the reserve. If you caught a glimpse of it on the programme and liked what you saw, next time you're in the area, come and check out the reserve (and wildlife garden) for yourself.

I made three bumblebee homes with some children in the wildlife garden this week, and I really think this is something we can all do. Great for bumblebees... even better for bored children! The BBC breathing places website is a fantastic place to start for all sorts of mini-projects.

Creating homes is a really appealing task because children (and some big kids!) love the idea of shelter and 'homing' something, a bit like a pet. But do remember that it is just as important to encourage or grow food sources for wildlife in your gardens too. In this case for bees, plenty of flowers - in a variety of shapes - to provide a source of nectar.  At this time of year, you might even want to think about where bulbs such as crocusses might go, or think about introducing ivy for some late nectar. Our Homes for wildlife pack has a lot of advice on this kind of thing.

And don't worry if it doesn't look right first time. Our wildife garden is changing all the time so be experimental!

...Very nearly RSPB Old Moor. 

I need to say thank you to all of you who voted in the last round. We made it through to the finals! But we can’t relax yet. There is another round of voting running from Monday 3 August to Friday 14 August, and we need as many votes as possible in order to WIN! 

And to clinch the deal, I promise that if we do win, I will be accepting the award in a posh frock and... my Wellington boots, fresh from the garden! 

Please cast your vote by phoning 0844 6865433 or online at: www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/awards and click on Best Environment Project category. 

And tell as many of your wildlife gardening friends as possible.

Thank you so much.

Imagine the breeze playing across your face, the sun warming your skin and the gentle sound of a bee buzzing by your left elbow. There is a waft of humidity and the scent of a thousand entwined stems and open petals fill your nostrils. You’re in a meadow, just sitting and thinking on a summer's day.

We all associate sitting in a meadow with the wider countryside, 'getting away from it all', not necessarily near our own homes. But the fact is, you can have that wonderful, lazy summer feeling (complete with the sound of buzzing bees and grating grasshoppers) in your own back garden!

But you probably knew I was going to say that didn't you?

Earlier this year we sewed a wildflower meadow with locally native seeds, and placed some rather charming benches along it, so that when the time came for ox-eyed daisies, ragged robin, cowslips, yellow rattle, kidney vetch and dead nettle to blossom, our visitors could get right up close and enjoy it.

A plethora of bee-life has moved in; red-tailed, buff-tailed, white-tailed, common carder, early and field cuckoo bumblebees buzz contentedly while you sit at stare into space (and the wider reserve).

It was easy to do, we just raked over the soil and sewed it over the surface - simple!

Did you think that everything had gone quiet in the Old Moor garden? Well, for a while, perhaps. Largely because the garden seems to be taking care of itself. A little bit of regular but light weeding; watering (from a water butt of course); and a lot of watching; to see where things are growing too big, too small, or not growing at all!

But what’s that I hear? A clicking sound? Something buzzing? What an earth could it be? Not wildlife this time, but your chance to make a difference to people’s awareness of the work that the RSPB does locally, for the nature on your doorstep.

I am delighted to announce that RSPB Old Moor has made it through to the semi-finals of a National Lottery Award for Best Environment Project. In order to win, it is necessary for as many people as possible to click the link, or buzz the number below to register their vote between Monday 22 June and Friday 10 July. This gives us just three weeks to show our support for RSPB Old Moor as a deserving winner in this category.

If we win, the project will feature on a Saturday night BBC programme, enabling the RSPB to spread the word to a vast audience about the incredible work we do for local people and wildlife, bringing the nature on their doorstep closer. RSPB Old Moor is truly valued by the people who visit, work and volunteer here. We need to reflect this pride to the rest of the nation.

Please cast your vote by phoning 0844 6865433 or online at: www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/awards and click on Best Environment Project category.

It was always the plan that we would have a 'bar' for insects made from beer barrels and filled with a variety of flowering plants - including cowslip, evening primose and ragged robin - which would then attract everything from bees and butterflies to ladybirds. In addition to this, the much talked-about 'insect hotel' is close-by, providing shelter close to this abundance of food.

However, proving that you can never predict what nature will do, something rather exciting - and totally unrelated to insects - happened this week.

As I was eagerly explaining to a visitor on the reserve just how easy it would be for them to construct a hotel like ours in their own back garden (this being the point of our particular garden) and how this would attract a plethora of fluttering, buzzing and creeping creatures; right before our eyes, a weasel appeared out of nowhere. It crossed the path, and hopped accross the newly seeded wildflower meadow and came to the insect hotel. It didn't even stop to think as it flew inside, ran up to the second story and poked its head out from in between two roof tiles!

So is it to be a weasel hotel? And if so, how will our guest mix with the other residents? All thoughts on this gratefully anticipated! 

With most of the groundwork completed, the last nettle root out and soil raked to a 'fine tilth', the garden is crying out to recieve plants. Sadly, due to our incredible snowy season this year, most nurseries/garden centres are about three weeks later than last year.

Never fear, because in the meantime, plenty of non-plant related action has been taking place above ground to keep our wildlife (and volunteers) amused.

On a thrift tip, we constructed an 'insect hotel' out of salvaged bricks, pallets, old roof tiles, slates, twigs and pine cones. Pictures will follow - I promise! The layers, the holes, the piles of material and murky places are ideal for small critters including spiders, earwigs and lacewings.

We have invested in some decorative glazed pots to demonsatrate what can be done in the smallest of gardens. These will hold some beautiful seasonal flora such as pansies and primroses untill our wildflowers arrive.

I saw some bees buzzing round these varieties at the garden centre which bodes well for the time being.

And finally, the bog garden has been encircled by salvaged rocks (complete with moss) from other parts of the site.

The lads are going to construct another pathway so that people can get right up to the edge to view the plants and wildlife.

All in all, a busy time but well worth it. With spring finally in the air - I'd say we're on course for a wildlife spectacle come May.

We're trying not to let the cold weather of last week get us down or behind on the garden. Fortunately the volunteers seems to be even happier working in sluch and mud than at other times!

Three things are currently underway to help us plan the finer detail of the garden...

1) Into the bare ground that we cleared of weeds and turned over (with a fork, over and over again throughout winter), we are digging horticultural grit and peat-free compost. By doing this, we are making the earth easier to drain and more fertile than it is at present.

2) We are letting the sun - and a little bit of imagination - determine which areas will be better for bog (shady and wet), woodland (shady), meadow (exposed) and drought resistant (very exposed) plants, with the aim of demonstrating to the public that they can plant something that will help wildlife in all types of garden. (I must confess, I haven't tested any soil acidity which may have more expert gardeners reeling, but remember, I'm learning as I go...!) 

3) Towards the back of the garden, volunteers are digging a bog garden in a wet, shady area. Easier than a pond, you only have to dig down 20 - 25 cm, line it with pond liner, and can fill it back in with at least 50 % of the spoil you dig out. (Note to novice wildlife gardeners - you will be amazed by the volume of mud you dig out when creating these features so make sure you have somewhere to 'lose' it!) This will create a brilliant soggy area for interesting plantlife, insects and amphibians.

So, if you'll forgive me, it's quite an 'organic' process. We've let the garden itself determine its shape and plant scheme, which seems to make sense to me at this stage. Stay tuned, and we'll see how this pans out over the next few months... 

What makes a widlife spotting den? We're just in the process of creating one in our wildlife garden, but I bet you've got one already. Ours used to be a 'hide', then before that it was a 'shed' but now it's very much a 'den'. For spotting wildlife.

So who uses this 'den' and why am I so sure that you've got one already? The thing that separates a den from anything else is that it is a place that can be absolutely anywhere, and absolutely anyone can use it! Think tree-house or teepee, dining room or kitchen window.

So this weekend, spare a thought for us here at RSPB Old Moor as we try to recreate the first ever Big Garden Birdwatch (1979 for those of you who don't know) in our wildlife spotting den, on Saturday, in full fancy dress!

Staff and volunteers will be on-hand - with far too much hair - to help everyone with their bird-count and celebrate 30 years of the Big Garden Birdwatch. Here's hoping there will be plenty to see... man.

You might have noticed that the last entry had a more self-reflective feel than previous blogs. This is because although the practical work on wildlife garden project (i.e. digging) has been ticking over at a nice speed, it has made it rather hard to report much new till now. I'm beginning to realise that part of gardening - and learning to garden - is discovering patience. We are watching things emerge at their own pace, especially as we are not relying on nasty chemicals to do the job for us. But making this happen in 'real-time' i.e. not a swift makeover that happens without anybody seeing it, has brought with it much more scope for passing on messages about the benifits of wildlife friendly gardening.

Over the last three weeks Groundwork Dearne Valley and our team of reserve volunteers have been undertaking some of the 'heavy' landscaping work, taking out arbitrary divides such as fencing and laying a footpath. Given that a motive for building this garden was to highlight the similarities between gardening for wildlife in your own time and managing a nature reserve, the fact that the garden is now beginning to forge a physical link between the vistior hub and the rest of the reserve is a clear design improvement.

Abbove all, people's imaginations have been fuelled as they have started to see the 'shape' of things to come and I have been inundated - in a very nice way - with advice, offers of plants and help.  A great thing about building a 'back garden' in a visitor facility is that evreyone is involved - passively or actively - and that spreads the wildlife-friendly message in the most potent way.     

Our latest venture is all about demonstrating that the act of gardening can be inclusive, can improve quality of life, and increase UK biodiversity.All of these influence the way our garden will be interpreted - remember that it is a visitor attraction after all.

Our creative services team at the RSPB have been working hard to design some innovative pieces that will capture this sense of 'people power' in the garden, and across the environment more generally. Afterall, gardens cover almost a million hectares of the UK alone. 

By using interpretation in this way we are not just flatly informing visitors of what it is they are looking at but actively engaging them with what they enjoy. This way, we can attempt to motivate people to change their own behaviour; by gardening in a wildlife friendly way; by volunteering; or maybe by becoming members of the RSPB.

Whilst I haven't much new to tell you about garden progress (other than digging, followed by more digging) the group and I are really enjoying the company of a plethora of wildlife.

Last week whilst digging the last lengths of the lavender border, one of my volunteers noticed what she thought was a slight movement of earth. I'm sure I don't need to go into the detail of the jokes that ensued ("you must really be enjoying that digging" etc. etc.) but we all thought she'd gone a bit bonkers.

A little while later, another volunteer noticed the same thing and called us all over to have a look. Again, we all felt that perhaps someone had slipped something into the coffee that morning as there was no sign at that moment of any movement.

Then all of a sudden, there it was, quite like a mini-earthquake and terrifyingly fast, bubbling up from underneath the freshly dug earth - A MOLE! So soft and beautiful and incredibly busy. We think we must have disturbed it's tunnel, but it was certainly well on the way to building itself another.

I'm sure that many people regard these creatures as a pest but for us it was just another example of the fascinating wildlife that can live in a garden.

I did it! I gardened!

I had a trusty team of helpers of course. Two volunteers who till now have spent most of their volunteer hours charming visitors in our centre, and three volunteers from a local day resource centre. Beween us, we have revealed a good deal of earth and I even got stuck in with the loppers and bow-saw!

A seventh helper however, only made his presence known after a fair bit of mud had been shifted - what a shirker! - and even then he kept a discreet distance. He still managed to steal the lime-light by hopping in at the last second and picking up a worm...

It was a robin! A beautiful bright and very autumnal robin keeping a very beady eye on all the activity. If there's one bird that really sums up the relationship between gardening and nature, I think it would be him.

As part of Feed the Birds Day, members of the public helped us plant a lavender hedge and honeysuckle to climb under our veranda to attract wildlife such as birds and bees next year. As the Homes for Wildlife website suggests, feeding birds with kitchen scraps seeds and peanuts at this time of year is vital, but planting up for the future in this way is totally sustainable (and, rather pretty!)

So get digging. Who knows, you might - like me - find a small brown bird with a red breast keeping you company througout the day!